Poetry, especially traditional Iranian poetry, is very good at looking at things from a number of different angles simultaneously.

One of the biggest blessings in my life is that I have a very wonderful family, a lovely wife and two lovely daughters.

It's not some big event that creates the drama, it's the little things of everyday life that bring about that drama.

The bigger confrontation is the one an individual has with itself.

I see screenwriting as a bit like a math equation which I have to solve.

When I decide to write a story, I don't think too much about what I want it to be, I just let things come naturally and this is how it turns out. It's just how my subconscious works.

I like storytelling, and for storytelling you need a drama. And for there to be drama, you need twists, and by twists I mean the ability to constantly change the trajectory of the story.

I would have had the same narrative, regardless of the atmosphere and the restrictions.

In my opinion when you speak about relationships between people, you are actually talking about everything in their world because everything is contained in that relationship.

One must never tell a child what it is they should display acting.

It was important to me to make a film where I don't show the past but where the spectators can see the past.

She would let a speeding automobile hit her to show them all how unloved she was.

cynicism springs from disappointments in love.

If I could go back in time to change stuff? Oh yeah, there's a few movies I would not have done.

I don't know where Hank Aaron will break (Babe) Ruth's record but I can tell you one thing - ten years from the day he hits it three million people will say they were there.

My Department has already recognised this and has been working specifically on the technical support issue since January and will offer advice to schools during the Autumn term.

Uh-uh. We've played this game before. I hide. You never seek. I'm a bit slow on the uptake, but I'm beginning to sense a pattern.

Has anybody ever seen a dramatic critic in the daytime? Of course not. They come out after dark, up to no good.

Stress is when you wake up screaming and realize you haven't fallen asleep yet

The implication strongly is that Osama bin Laden is a Hitler, even though he has no state power at all. It's just grotesque if you seriously think about it.